A virtual office is a place where you and I can conduct business on-line worldwide over the internet. A virtual office takes advantage of communication technologies, such as chat rooms, discussion boards, video conferencing, fax on demand, and voice on demand. The purpose of the Virtual Office is to disseminate information electronically regardless of distance.

Well there are many reasons for using a Virtual Office, such as:

- Reduces paper-flow since information is exchanged electronically
- Centralizes knowledge so everyone can access it worldwide
- Makes it easy to share and distribute information and ideas
- Always open, the Virtual Office never closes, you can access anytime
- Eliminates distance, reducing the costs of information exchange
- Improves the working relationship between people between different cultures and backgrounds

How do I get started?

If you are new to virtual services, don't worry - my virtual office is very simple to use. All you have to do is navigate using the Quick Menu in the upper right corner of this web page. Several help pages are included to help answer your questions.

Self Service

One of the best features of a virtual office is self-service; i.e. you simply do it yourself. For example, you can access information from the Discussion Board or enter the Chat Room anytime. Additionally, this website is designed to be a "resource" for people interested in learning business finance. For example, you can take a Short Course from the Training Center or download a spreadsheet from Free Excel Spreadsheets. Therefore, you should find it easy to access all types of resources on this website.

This virtual office pulls together several services and tools. Here are some of the basic components behind this virtual office:

- ESA: Electronic Secretary Assistant is a Toll Free Service that provides Voice on Demand files that anyone can play anytime anywhere. A few of these files are listed as audio files on the Service Arrangements page.

- Volcano Chat: JAVA Applet program for providing a simple text chat room.

- Discus is the freeware program for providing the Discussion Board.

- Web Conferencing: Given a high speed internet connection, we can conduct a live conference over the internet, thanks to a desktop program called NetMeeting. However, thanks to Application Service Providers, there is now a much easier and faster way to conference. As a result, NetMeeting is slowly being replaced by on-line service providers such as WebEx, Genesys, and Microsoft's Live Meeting. Therefore, the future of web conferencing is clearly with services such as WebEx as opposed to using NetMeeting.

When you combine all of these components (Toll Free Services, Chat Room, Discussion Board, and Web Conferencing) together into a single website, you have the makings of a Virtual Office!

Additional Resources

After Office | Business Centers | Batipi | Calendar Service | Centra | Conference Depot | Conference Service | Confer Zone | Contact Office | Davinci Virtual | eProject | eRoom | Genesys | Intelligent Office | IntraLinks | Live Answering Service | London Virtual Office | MShow | Net Documents | Netopia | OneBox | Ovo Suite | Pat Live | Rain Dance | Regus Virtual Offices | Smart Conference | Sonexis | Virtual Assistants | Virtual Office News | Virtual Office Suites | Web Conference Central | WebEx | WebTrain